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Miscellaneous

Local Favorites on NPR Music’s Best of 2010

It’s December, which means the Best of 2010 album lists are already coming out all around you. If you’re like me, this means going back through iTunes and Last.fm to see what was really listened to the most or has made that special impression on you since January. Being Local Music Director, I listen to much more local music than anything else and am finding that quite a few local albums have made their way into my list for this year.

The folks over at NPR Music have already put out their top 50 favorites of 2010 and the list includes most of the important albums released since January. I was excited to see North Carolina’s own Carolina Chocolate Drops on the list with their spring release “Genuine Negro Jig” alongside bands such as Arcade Fire, The National, and Sharon Van Etten.

Alongside the fifty chosen by NPR Music’s staff, music lovers everywhere are getting the chance to vote for their very own top albums of 2010. The results of the poll will be revealed during All Songs Considered on Dec. 14 and Carolina Chocolate Drops, Future Islands, and Lost In The Trees are all nominees. You can vote through the link below and listen on Dec. 14 for the results!


NPR Music: What Are Your Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2010.
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Miscellaneous

WKNC “Dodges” the Competition

On Monday, Dec. 6, a team of WKNC  DJs competed in a dodgeball tournament put on by N.C. State’s Campus Rec.

This event began with pool play and then end in a single elimination tournament. DJs SarahNade, Mollypop, Shorty Shorts, Tommyboy, Major Tom and Bunch made the competition sweat.

The first round went to the opposing team, but WKNC came back strong in Round 2, tying with one player left on each team after two minutes. The Revolution kept improving by eliminating each of the opposing team’s players in under two minutes during Round 3, forcing a sudden death elimination with two players on each team. Tommyboy and Major Tom stepped up their game and headed the team, but sadly, we lost after a fierce curveball-to-lower abs-shot by Tommyboy.

Campus Rec will be holding different games and activities during the week to help students take some exam stress away.

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Miscellaneous

Take the WKNC Fall 2010 Internet Survey

WKNC 88.1 FM is conducting a survey to better serve its listeners and members of the N.C. State/Raleigh community. The survey should take about five minutes to complete.

To thank you for your time, one of every 50 respondents will receive a special thank you gift. If you would like to enter the drawing, please provide your email address or telephone number at the end of this survey. All responses will be kept confidential.

Take it now.

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Miscellaneous

WKNC kicks off Homecoming

WKNC was proud to help out with NC State Homecoming 2010: No Wake Zone Sunday night.

Students and Wolfpack fans came out to enjoy free shirts, food, and games. WKNC raffled off Bob Dylan’s The Best of The Original Mono RecordingsCDs as well as copies of Nightsound Studios Presents: Musical Chairs, a compilation of local artists covering other local artists’ songs. Congratulations to our winners!

WKNC will also be at the homecoming parade Friday (6-7 p.m. on Hillsborough St.), emceed by DJ Elly May, as well as PackHowl Pep Rally (7-10 p.m. on Harris Field). The Pep Rally will feature  hot chocolate, speeches from some of the football players and head coach Tom O’Brien, cheerleaders, Wolfpack band, student performances, and headlining band, Augustana.

Look for our table and come say hello to your favorite deejays! We’ll have stickers, Fridays on the Lawn information, and more giveaways in the spirit of Wolfpack Football. Go Pack!

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Miscellaneous

Continuing the legend: Rosanne Cash to present memoir in Raleigh

If you’re any kind of a fan of Johnny Cash, you’ll know of his talented and oldest offspring, Rosanne Cash. Not only has she continued the Cash legend, but she herself has taken the name a great many strides forward in the world of music and literary arts. In her 30+year career, she has thus far released 12 albums and has had 11 #1 singles, with her most recent album release in fall 2009. She has also written a book of short stories, a children’s book, essays and work fiction, and, most recently, her memoir.

This nationally and internationally renowned musician will be coming to Raleigh to promote her soon to be released book Composed:a Memoir.

“Now, in her memoir, Cash writes compellingly about her upbringing in Southern California as the child of country legend Johnny Cash, and of her relationships with her mother and her famous stepmother, June Carter Cash. In her account of her development as an artist she shares memories of a hilarious stint as a twenty-year-old working for Columbia Records in London; recording her own first album on a German label; working her way to success; her marriage to Rodney Crowell, a union that made them Nashville’s premier couple; her relationship with the country music establishment; taking a new direction in her music and leaving Nashville to move to New York; motherhood; dealing with the deaths of her parents, in part through music; the process of songwriting; and the fulfillment she has found with her current husband and musical collaborator, John Leventhal.”

—Quail Ridge Bookstore

flyer for Rosanne Cash at Meredith College

Above is the official flyer for the event. The event will be held on Friday, August 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Auditorium at Meredith College. The tickets are $5 and available at Quail Ridge Bookstore, or the event is free with a purchase of the book itself. While she will not be performing, she will be discussing her new book and signing memorabilia and merchandise.

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Miscellaneous

4th Annual Lump Gallery Benefit

First Friday is coming this week, and if you are heading down that way, then you should feel obligated to stop and see some amazing local and national musicians, get some local beer, and support a local art gallery.

Lump Gallery in downtown Raleigh is having its 4th annual benefit party for only $10 ($5 with a student I.D.) and features plenty of entertainment and refreshments alongside the artwork. Carolina Brewing Company will be providing beer and there will be raffle tickets  for prizes available (for a suggested donation) for Duck & Dumpling, The Pit, jeans by Denim Raleigh, Holly Aiken hand bags, Askew Taylor’s art supplies, and artwork!

In addition, Chapel Hill band Organos will be playing along with a deejay set by Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. Neil Prewitt of Yuxtapongo will be featuring a video and performance as well.

Lump is located at 505 S. Blount Street, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27601.

It all starts at 7 p.m.!

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Miscellaneous

Interested in working for the KNC?

There will be two interest meetings August 20 and 24 in the Student Senate on the 2nd floor of Witherspoon Student Center. Only qualification is that you run with the Pack (students only).

Join the facebook group here!

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Miscellaneous

Discover the answers to your deepest musical mysteries

Hey, viewers of the WKNC Blog! If you haven’t noticed, we’ve started the polls back up again (look to the right side of the page you’re reading right now). Us radio station workers are pretty ingenius people with a hand full of irresistibly awesome questions, but, alas, we aren’t perfect. We can’t think of all the great questions that need to be voted upon, and we can’t peer into the souls of our listeners to find the questions they most deeply yearn to ask. We need your help! Do you have a great question in desperate need of results? A funny question? A dumb question? A sarcastic question? A life-altering question? As long as it’s kept PG and has to do with WKNC radio, NCSU, or music in general, we want to make a poll about it! All you have to do is email me, The Blog Lady, at blog@wknc.org, and send me your questions ALONG WITH ANSWERS. You may have a great poll question, but without great answers, you’ve got diddly. The question needs a minimum of two answers and, depending on the question, maximum of ten to twelve answers. Need a little poll inspiration? Keep refreshing this page, and a different poll will show up on the right-hand side each time.

Thanks for helping make us the best radio station in the Triangle!

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Miscellaneous

WKNC Broadcasting Down

At approximately 7:59 p.m., a massive storm rolled over WKNC studios, and we believe a lightning strike knocked out either our main broadcasting tower or one of our relay towers causing us to go off the air. We are still down but our engineers are already working to resolve the issue. Please stay tuned on WKNC’s Twitter account for updated details.

Facts about lightning:

  • The average lightning bolt is 6-8 miles  long and can easily travel 25 to 40 miles horizontally prior to turning downward toward the ground. In October 2001, the visual lightning detection system measured a single bolt that traveled from Waco to Fort Worth and then Dallas, Texas—a total distance of more than 110 miles.
  • About 20 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur annually in the USA. That’s just under one per second for the USA and about 100 per second world wide.
  • The energy contained in a single lightning stroke can power a 100 watt light bulb for 90 days, which is equivalent to 215 kWh (kilo-Watt hours).
  • Typically, more than 2,000 thunderstorms are active throughout the world at any given moment, producing on the order of 100 flashes per second.
  • An average of 87 lightning fatalities were reported each year between 1959 and 1995.
  • About 10 percent of the people struck by lightning are killed; this leaves the other 90 percent with various types of injuries.
  • The primary cause of death from lighting is cardiac arrest.
  • Unlike high voltage electrical injuries with which massive internal tissue damage may occur, lightning seldom causes substantial burns.
  • Most lightning burns are caused by objects such as rainwater, sweat, metal coins, and necklaces being heated up and causing the burn.
  • Adam Kincaid once lost power for 16 hours due to lightning and tried suing the power company who then gave him three months free electricity.

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Miscellaneous

Best in the Triangle 2010!

WKNC 88.1 FM is back on top with the release of Independent Weekly’s 2010 Best in the Triangle Reader’s Choice poll. WKNC earned the title of Best College Radio Station after the category was divided into college and commercial categories this year. The station was a finalist for Best Radio Station in 2009 and won top honors in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. WKNC’s DJ Ones was also named a finalist for Best Radio DJ, one of four WKNC DJs to honored in the last five years.

Independent Weekly’s Greg Lowenhagen stopped by the WKNC studio Thursday afternoon to present General Manager Tommy Anderson with the station’s award and talk about Independent Weekly’s Hopscotch Music Festival September 9-11 in Raleigh.